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Blog marathon time again! Post 1: Organic terrace Gardening

Every year I do a blog-marathon. What this means is that there will be a new post every single day, for the next 30 days. It may be a poem, a picture, a recipe, a thought, a musing, an incident--just anything that strikes me as worth sharing, but a new post it shall be.

I started this in 2009 and so have completed five blog marathons so far! It is definitely not easy. Some days, one just doesn't want to post on the blog. But like all marathons---persistence and effort is what gets you to the end post---in my case, the end being 28th August 2014.

The challenge here is to post every single day, no matter what is happening in your life. For me, I have my mom and her sister visiting me soon and I really look forward to it. I also have my husband's side of the family visiting and so it's going to be a busy busy time. This is in between working on my 6th book (yes! It's nearly done!) and in between my newspaper columns.

Of course, as always, you--the ones who read my blog--have been very kind with your comments and interactions, and all that you have to say. So please do take a moment to leave me a comment---it makes me happy to write again, the next day and the next and the next next and...and.. Oh, you get the picture.

So for all of you who have written in and asked when i will be doing it--here you go!

Today's post is a picture for you, from my garden:

This is the first time in my life that I am growing vegetables. There are about 16 tomatoes on one single plant! And I have about 8 plants, like the above one. I just harvested my first ripe tomato yesterday.

When I started off, I had absolutely no knowledge about organic terrace gardening. But it was something that attracted me. I got inspired after watching this short documentary.
It has English subtitles and those of you, who are interested, I would urge you to watch it.

Next, I went and bought the pots, the compost, the soil and manure (Horse dung and cow dung). I sowed the tomato seeds (I picked them up from lalbagh) in small containers, and once they sprouted, i transplanted them into bigger pots. After that it was tender loving care and watering regularly that did the trick. I also read up a lot on the ideal conditions for growing tomatoes and this blog-post by a veteran tomato grower gave me some invaluable tips, that I followed to a T.

Growing tomatoes isn't very hard. It needs constant care though--and plenty of sunshine and water. (do not over water). An online forum calledOrganic Terrace gardening, is a community that I joined, and I found the members really helpful.

Where there is a will, there is a way. This cliched and well known saying is true--I can vouch for it. My tomato plants are a witness.

It feels great to read something organic...ma'am, as now the world is moving onto a hi-tech world with too many complexities leaving the world to deteriorate. Wishing all the best for your blog marathon.Good work maa'm.

Nice. Its very greenish . Marathon posts start with good organic messages . Its really feel good to have our own garden vegetables .I also had a habit of gardening, Now i planted brinjal ..As always i am one of the fan of the blog ,books . Good luck . Your post refreshing me and motivating me :) Thankyou for sharing

“Organic farming appealed to me because it involved searching for and discovering nature's pathways, as opposed to the formulaic approach of chemical farming. The appeal of organic farming is boundless; this mountain has no top, this river has no end.

I was thinking to read your marathon blogs from day 1 but due to some personal works I wasn't able to do so and trust me now I realized what I was missing from last 18 days. I thought you are too good at writing but you are too good at gardening also. It's so good to hear you are working on your 6th book, excitedly looking forward for it..

Desi Blitzwhich is Britain's award winning, leading Asian web-magazine, has been co-ordinating the whole event, and have been corresponding with me over the last many months to make this happen.

I am very very excited about it. I will be travelling to UK in October. I used to live in UK, andone of my novels features Norwich, the place where I used to live.
(Yes, I will be travelling to Norwich too, later, after the cover release).

You can watch the unveiling of the cover --LIVE by following myFacebook author page. (Hover over 'like' and enable 'see first' to not miss any notification)
You can also follow the page as there will be a lot of fun stuff happenin…